Shorts
by Skitty 2004
Summary: Surely I deserved a bit of mercy? I mean, he didn't even like me back. Maybe I just needed to make my shorts a bit shorter. -HildaxCheren, later HildaxN
1. Of Shorts, Nighttime, and Ruined Rooms

Chapter 1

_Of Shorts, Nighttime, and Ruined Rooms_

**(Edit: I'm really sorry this is such a long chapter! All the future ones are about half this length...)**

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><p>It was silly of me. Silly, stupid, and oh so cliché. But I couldn't help it. For years now, I had a crush on one of my best friends. What kind of person actually does that? It made a bit more sense though when taking into consideration that we lived in a small town, and out of the three people (including myself) that were my age, he was the only guy. With options like that, surely it was understandable? Surely I deserved a bit of mercy? I mean, he didn't even like me back.<p>

Maybe I just needed to make my shorts a bit shorter.

With that thought in mind, I rolled my eyes and turned back to Bianca. When Bianca saw my face, all she would be able to see was a cheery smile. Nothing that gave away the hopeless romantic look that had been on my face moments before.

"Tomorrow," I breathed out. "Tomorrow, we'll be entirely different people. No longer will we be normal kids around town—we'll be pokémon trainers. This'll be the last time we ever hang out together as normal friends. After this, we may well be compelled to fight each other every time we make eye contact."

Bianca giggled at my joke. Was it a joke? It was half serious. Half. Close enough to a joke, I guess.

"I don't know if I'll be able to make it." Bianca giggled again. "You and Cheren will probably blow me out of the water. He's so smart, and you're so… you."

Cheren—smart? What an understatement. Even if I wasn't head over heels for the guy, I still would think that. The guy studied everything. He even _looked _like a total genius. With everything he astutely observed, it was a wonder he didn't already notice how much I liked him. I mean, Bianca was a different situation entirely. The poor girl probably wouldn't even know unless I flat out told her. Well… you can't win them all.

"Hilda looks as spaced out as usual."

I jolted to attention as I heard Cheren's voice. He didn't notice; he was brushing something off his sleeve. But then again, he must have been paying attention enough to notice I was spacing out in the first place. But of course, he could have just been guessing since he'd have a high chance of being correct…

"She'll be more down to earth when she gets those pokémon tomorrow. You know how she always gets right before a battle."

Ah, yes. Despite my general cheery disposition (not quite on par with Bianca's though definitely quieter), I have been informed that I get a rather serious look right before a battle. We had had mock battles as kids with imaginary pokemon, and it was taken for granted that I'd probably look the same before an actual battle.

"Let's not talk about that," I suggested, quite willing to get off the subject. "We have tomorrow and the rest of forever to mock battle faces." That last part was directed to Bianca who started attempting to get the same serious look she had referred to that I apparently had. And really? She was trying to use her hands to force her face in the right position. Well, maybe it made sense. Goodness only knows the girl couldn't possibly make a serious face otherwise. "For today, let's just make use of the time we have together."

I could have sworn I saw a small spark of approval in Cheren's eyes, but I could have been just as likely imagining it. Infatuation does crazy things to the mind.

"Where will we be hanging out?" Cheren asked. I was mildly surprised that he didn't make at least a suggestion like he usually would, but he probably was trying to be generous or selfless by leaving the decision up to either me or Bianca. Ah, if only I could express the fluttering of my stomach. He was such a gentleman. I was probably going to be up for a harsh awakening the moment I met any other teenage guys.

"Umm…" I scuffed my shoe against the dirt on the sidewalk as I thought. My brain seemed to find it difficult to get off the subject of Cheren and focus instead on the question he asked. Where would we be hanging out? Um, we could go to my room and play on the Wii. We could relax in Bianca's plush room. We could…

Before I could say any of my suggestions, Bianca announced, "Here." Before I could entirely register what she said, I found myself being forced onto the ground. Before I could think of how literally dirty the ground was here, Cheren was forced down beside me. He was sitting cross-legged, and he was so close, his knee was brushing my thigh. The only thing between us was his black pants. And what was he doing wearing those anyway, for goodness sake? It was summer. He could definitely afford to lose a few layers. I'd be more than willing to help.

Before I could suggest for Cheren to lose his pants, Bianca sat down in front of both of us. She smiled broadly and took a deep breath of the evening air. As if getting a profound vision or memory, she closed her eyes and spoke to us. "This is a great place for us to be. Better than any. We always meet right here before going anywhere, and it was also the place where I met you guys." She opened her eyes and stared at us brightly. "Do you guys remember that?"

Neither Cheren nor I said anything, but we both remembered. Well, I knew I did, and with Cheren's absurdly good memory, I was sure he did too. Cheren and I had more or less grown up together, but then when we were six, Bianca had moved into town. Oddly enough, the way we met was because, right here underneath this streetlight between my house and Bianca's house, Bianca's shoes came untied, and she had been sitting here nearly crying over it because she suddenly couldn't remember how to tie a knot. Cheren and I had been passing by, and Cheren, being the noble guy he still is, stepped forward and tied it for her. After that, Bianca insisted on following us everywhere—just in case her shoes came untied again. We became a close knit trio of friends, and it had lasted us a solid ten years.

Sure, we had had some off times here and there, but nothing really substantial. There was, sad to admit, a time when I had nearly broken down over something Bianca had done, but in all reality, it was because I was a bit… ah… on the unintelligent side at the time. Overly dramatic. Even worse than most preteens-which is saying something. Yeah, it was when we were eleven. I saw Bianca on the street, and I waved to her, but she didn't wave back. I thought she was ignoring me, and then I noticed she was wearing slip-on shoes. Drastic, my thoughts may be—I thought she was done being friends with us. She was ignoring me, and she no longer needed us to tie her shoes for her. I ran all the way to Cheren's house, nearly sobbing all the while, and he told me I was being stupid. He told me I was stupid in that way that only little kids and preteens can. Still, he calmed me down somehow.

Well, it was only five years ago, but I definitely knew I was beyond that kind of stunt now. Or at least, that particular one. Even at the moment, Bianca was wearing slip-ons, but I wasn't breaking down, was I? If I started crying, it would probably be because this might be the last time we were together as friends. Tomorrow, we'd be trainers, and whether we took it seriously or not, we'd be against each other. It's every girl for herself out there. Or guy, in Cheren's case.

Maybe they didn't look at it that way though. But we'd be separated, and we'd be battling each other. Surely that could wear down many friendships. Competition just… isn't friendly. Maybe I was wrong, but time would only tell. It probably wasn't worth thinking about unless it actually happened. Funny—that thought could be applied to a lot of things. My thoughts drifted again to Cheren. He was right there, next to me. But what was I gaining from thinking about being with him when, in less than twenty-four hours, we'd be parting ways?

Bianca seemed to accept that we were lost in our various memories, and she too sat there quietly, wistfully. It got darker, logically, due to the setting of night, but we continued sitting there, content, as only friends can be.

/-/-/-/-

It looked like Christmas. It was breaking ninety degrees outside even as the sun began to set, but I could feel the shivers dancing up and down my arms. On the far table in my room, there was a just a single item. A box. It was blue, and it had a vibrant green ribbon wrapped around with the extra ribbon (quite a bit) forming an elaborate bow on top. I had already read, more than five times, the note attached, and now it was all I could do to stand in the middle of my room. As soon as Cheren and Bianca showed up, everything would change. It was like the final hour. The suspense was pumping my blood unusually fast, and it took every aversion of thought to try not to think of how I didn't even have to wait for my friends—I could just jump right in and take a pokémon from the box. Who would stop me?

And why in the world did Professor Juniper even bring them to my house? We were all getting pokémon; it wasn't like I was the most important one in the trio. Bianca's room would have been a cuter choice, if nothing else. More memorable. The only thing that made my room more special than the rooms of my friends was that I had a Wii. And that didn't have anything to do with pokémon.

Maybe it was that my house was closest to the lab. Professor Juniper was, well, a professor. She probably had better things to be doing than travelling across town.

"Hilda!"

Cheren. I couldn't even turn to look at him. He'd be standing there is his not-at-all-summer clothes, and he'd be… here. Speaking of which, he was _here_. In my room. No one else was around. Bianca would probably be late as usual. I was alone with Cheren. It might be the last time we were even together like this. Maybe this, of all times, would be the right opportunity to tell him how I felt. Now, before Bianca showed up and we weren't alone anymore. Now, before we picked our pokémon and became some sort of rivals.

Just as I was about to turn to him and confess, he continued, "I heard from Professor Juniper. The pokémon are here?"

I mumbled something of a yes. All right. Maybe I wouldn't confess. My hopes were kind of dashed. It was just hard to get on the topic of loving someone for years when the subject was about pokémon.

"What's keeping Bianca?" Cheren asked idly, breaking the minutes of silence. I probably should have been trying to converse more, but my thoughts were in a bit of an upheaval. This was something of a major life change, and it was difficult to imagine that I'd have to go from seeing my crush every day to seeing him… infrequently. Possibly not even for months.

Why was that my most major concern anyway? I should probably be wondering more about what I'm going to eat and how long my money will last me.

Cheren wasn't even looking at me. He was leaning on one hip, bored, while his opposite foot was tapping against the ground. Ah, Cheren was so open. There was no hiding how he felt. Bored and impatient. His open honestly was the one fact that told me he really didn't have romantic interest in me. I would have realized it by now.

"Am I a little late again?" Cheren and I both turned at the sound of Bianca's chipper voice. She fixed us with an eager grin that didn't match the, "Sorry!" she let out. She held out the '_o' _in sorry for a good three seconds which may not sound long, but when it's one vowel, it kind of is.

"Bianca…" Cheren sighed, taking a step towards her. "I've known for ten years that you had no sense of time, but… seriously… Today's the day we can get a pokémon from Professor Juniper!"

Bianca rolled her eyes happily and said, "I know. Sorry, Hilda. Sorry, Cheren." She moved to stand at my right side. I faced her, still unwilling to look at Cheren. Really, I should have been soaking up the sight while I still could, but instead I was worried I might somehow give away the fact that I like him. Bianca tore me from my thoughts by interrupting, "So, where are the pokémon?" She looked around cluelessly as if they might be hiding behind something. Not that everything wasn't pushed up against the wall in my room.

As if expecting me to have the answer, she cleverly decided, "They were delivered to Hilda's house, so Hilda gets the first pick." Yup, Bianca expected me to lead her to the pokémon since they weren't clearly out in the open. Maybe, try looking at the strange box that doesn't match the rest of my room?

"Naturally," Cheren responded in his overly attractive voice. We all turned towards the box as Cheren assisted Bianca and continued what he was saying all in one sentence. "The pokémon are waiting for us inside that gift box. Okay, Hilda, you go first and take a peek at the gift box. I want to meet the pokémon right now!" he expressed eagerly.

I stepped towards the box and laid a hand on it. Why did the pressure fall on me? Shouldn't we open it together? Or something? I lifted the card on it and read it for the sixth time.

"_I've brought three pokémon, one for you and one for each of your friends. Please settle your choices politely. Enjoy your pokémon! _-_-Professor Juniper"_

Well, it was now or never. I pulled on the loose ribbon on top, and the bow fell apart as if it had never even meant to be there in the first place. I lifted the top of the box, preparing myself mentally for whatever awaited inside.

It was a bit anticlimactic. There were three pokéballs on the inside, and their round shapes were quivering slightly back and forth from the movement of the box. I lifted them out and held them in my hand. They were just barely small enough that I could hold all three in one hand without worrying about them dropping. I turned to face my friends and picked one of the pokéballs out of the three.

Unceremoniously, I tossed it forward. A small pokémon appeared in a flash of light. It looked around before turning to face me. "Te…pig?" I bent down and rubbed its back. The little pig rumbled happily. Standing back up, I tossed the other two forward at the same time. The two new pokémon announced themselves as Oshawatt and Snivy. I looked back at my friends. They looked at me. No assistance was in their eyes. The decision would be entirely up to me.

I sat back down in front of the three pokémon. The tepig rubbed itself against my knee and the oshawatt scooted forward and started nudging my hand curiously. The snivy stood its distance with an indifferent stare.

Well, the tepig was cutest, no doubt there. It was rubbing up my knee, looking happier than anything. Its tail, literally a coiled spring, waved back and forth with the tepig's movements. Since I was going on a journey alone, I probably could have used the cheerful company. But all the same, it didn't quite seem… right for me. It looked like the one I expected Bianca to pick.

The oshawatt was coiling and uncoiling my fingers as I judged the tepig. Looking at the oshawatt now, it was a cute one too. Its eyes were smaller than tepig's, but in a sense, they seemed larger. It seemed like the oshawatt was trying to gather in the entire world all in one moment. Its curiosity was definitely a plus. It was adorable. It poked at my hand and then looked at its own. It fixed me with the most adorably curious look I had ever seen. Adorable. There was really no other way to describe the thing. It was almost difficult to believe it would even be a strong fighter.

The snivy was still standing aside from everyone. Its eyes were barely half open, and it looked entirely at ease. And arrogant. It looked like it owned the place—my room—even though it had never previously been here. When it noticed me looking, it gave me a small flick of the head. I wasn't sure whether it was a simple acknowledgement or… I don't even know what. I nodded at it back, and it looked a bit happier for a second before going back to its "cool and collected" look.

Was there really a best choice among them? They all had their advantages as far as battles go, so the choice was merely between which one I liked the most. A choice between cheer, curiosity, or calm.

But was it even that hard of a decision? I had known which one I was going to choose as soon as I saw all of them. I stood, careful not to bump the two pokémon clustered around me, and held two of the pokéballs out to my friends. I informed them with a smile, "The snivy is mine."

I figured the tepig would go with its similar human, Bianca, and the oshawatt with its natural intrigue to learn more would go to Cheren.

With a typical, big smile, Bianca took one of the pokéballs from me. "Okay, I'll take this pokémon! Cheren, that one's yours!"

Cheren moved forward quickly. "Hey, how come you get to pick out my pokémon?" He looked at the pokéball he got and then shrugged. "Oh, never mind. I wanted Tepig from the start, anyway."

Oh, Bianca got oshawatt? She probably couldn't refuse the adorableness factor of it. That was understandable. But Cheren wanted Tepig all along? Huh. That one was lost on me. Ah well, it's his choice.

Stating the obvious, Bianca announced, "Everyone has chosen a pokémon! …So that's that! Hey, I know! Let's have a pokémon battle!"

Not even two minutes into acquiring a pokémon, and Bianca was already itching to fight? She didn't even want to train or get to know the pokémon first?

Cheren seemed to share my thoughts. "Honestly, Bianca…" he sighed. "Even though they're still weak pokémon, you shouldn't have pokémon battles inside a house." Okay, maybe we weren't thinking precisely the same thing, but it was close enough.

"Don't be a worrywart!" Bianca requested with a giggle. "These little ones are weak, like you said. We have to let them battle to get stronger. It's settled, Hilda! Get ready for a pokémon battle!"

With no more than a sigh, yet no less than a smile, Cheren stood back to the side and made sure to be roughly halfway between us. He was ready to call the shots if a referee role needed to be taken. It probably wouldn't—these pokémon were just beginners, as were the trainers for that matter.

I started reaching for Snivy's pokéball before remembering that he was already out. He sauntered in front of me looking as though not even a legendary stood a chance at defeating him. I, in all honesty, hadn't fully expected Bianca to choose me as her opponent. My starter had the type advantage over hers. Yet, there was, at the moment, a fierce determination accenting her usual happiness.

Bianca's oshawatt gave her a final curious look before scampering out in front of his trainer. He narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath as he prepared himself. As I thought, the poor creature looked more adorable than fierce. I don't want to play the "I'm a total over confident egoist" card, but I really doubted I could lose this battle.

In a rather loud whisper to Cheren, Bianca exclaimed, "See! Look at her battle face!"

Contrary to my friend, I decided not to waste any more time and said, "Snivy, tackle!" Without missing a beat, the snivy lunged forward and knocked the oshawatt to the ground.

"Eek! Ouch!" Her pokémon got back up, and Bianca looked more damaged by the attack than he did. She continued, "I won't let you get away with that!" She ordered her pokémon to tackle mine back, but Snivy, being faster, tried dodging. The dodge could be looked at as unsuccessful since Oshawatt refused to give in, and it started running towards the other pokémon in another attempt to tackle. Snivy's eyes widened, and he took off running with the oshawatt following close behind. It was only when the snivy was cornered against my bookshelf that the oshwatt managed to ram into it. The oshawatt looked proud for a moment—until it realized that the bookshelf was swaying back and forth. In a matter of seconds, it started falling forward. Snivy jumped up and started pushing oshawatt back until they were both out of the way. Just in time, too—the bookshelf slammed to the ground.

Mom didn't hear that, did she? She must have, but I didn't hear anyone coming up the stairs. Maybe she had to leave and do something. Maybe she'd be unknowingly buying us enough time so that we could finish the battle and make up some excuse for why we were battling indoors in the first place.

Deciding to keep on the offense, I ordered another tackle. Snivy let out a battle cry and lunged towards the pokémon he had just saved from a falling bookshelf. The oshawatt, in turn, let out a rather cute growl. Even from feet away, I could see the expression in Snivy's eyes grow soft.

"Don't give in! Tackle it again!" Snivy reacted with yet another tackle, although it did seem a bit weaker than the others. Maybe I was just imagining it. Bianca called for another tackle, and Snivy seemed to get a devious look in his eyes before making another dodge/chase scene.

It was at that point that I decided my snivy had a certain taste for destruction. With the oshawatt in tow, Snivy ran behind the plant in my room-_-_that got knocked over as Oshawatt tried to follow. Dirt was now on Snivy's feet, but if he cared, it was lost on me. He really probably didn't care. He was a grass type, after all.

Still fleeing the tackle, he ran across the table on the far side of my room, effectively knocking the gift box to the ground, and… that was where things started getting even further out of hand. In a mad leap, Snivy jumped across the room—hit the television—landed on the fallen bookshelf, and started running across the walls. As if it was his second nature, he ran across the walls perpendicularly, parallel with the ground. The corner gave him no trouble, and he just kept running.

The oshawatt didn't even bother following. It was in the center of the room, and it was looking as curious as it had been when it was first in the room. Granted, even I was kind of intrigued. I mean, yeah, Snivy was fast, but it could run on walls?

Still, gravity paid its toll, and the snivy fell to the ground right before its second corner. Fortunately, there was a bed there, so its fall was broken. The oshawatt, seeing this as a perfect opportunity, ran forward and lunged to tackle the snivy.

Although the oshawatt got its hit in, it forced the mattress down, and the springs, not expecting that sudden force, pushed back up. Maybe it was sadistic of me to think so, but the oshawatt comically bounced off Snivy, hit the wall, and rolled off onto the floor. The snivy regained its senses and prepared to attack again, but then it saw the oshawatt on the ground. Its eyes were closed and it looked limp. Still, it was breathing normally, so it could be figured that the poor thing was okay. Fainted, but okay.

As Snivy made an effort to drag the injured oshawatt back to its half-oblivious trainer, Bianca declared happily, "The pokémon on both sides did their best!" She fished in her purse for a few seconds, and then she held out some pokédollars to me. "Just like real battles right?" As I counted the money she had given me, she continued, "Wow… Hilda, you're gonna be an awesome trainer someday. I can tell! No doubt!"

"Uh…" Cheren started. I paused from counting to look at Cheren. I couldn't help it. He continued, a bit of an awkward flush on his face, "Bianca, would you take a look around?"

Bianca turned every direction, and a blush started creeping up her face as she assessed the mess. "Wh-whoa! What happened? Wow! Pokémon are amaaaaazing! So little, but so strong! I'm so glad that I get to have a pokémon!" She turned back to me and saw the dead-pan expression on my face. "…Oh. Um, sorry about your room, Hilda."

Cheren sighed and stepped forward between where Bianca and I were. "You… are completely hopeless. Here! I'll restore your pokémon for you." He pulled a potion out of his pocket and sprayed it on the oshawatt that had been left at Bianca's feet. "Hilda's pokémon needs to be fixed up, too," he confirmed. Snivy, now resting by my own feet, was sprayed with a potion just as Oshawatt was.

Bianca suddenly gave a small, excited jump, and as she recalled her Oshawatt, she walked to where Cheren had been previously standing. "Hey, Cheren!" she called despite the close proximity. "How about you battle, too? With all you know, I'm sure you can battle without turning the room into a disaster area like I did!" She truly sounded quite optimistic for someone who just ruined my room. The only item I could see that hadn't been moved in the battle was my Wii, and I'm sure that was pure luck.

Still, Cheren nodded with an almost egotistical expression and pushed his glasses up the ridge of his nose. "I believe you're right! It'll be no problem for me to keep the room from getting any messier. Besides, it's not fair if you two are the only ones who get to have fun battling!" He turned and looked at me with an analytical expression. Was I really supposed to fight him? Couldn't I just stare at him instead? When I battle, I aim to win, but how can I plan to defeat the person who I was so infatuated with? Could I just lose intentionally? I didn't want to do this. But I didn't want to lose. I wouldn't lose. "It's decided," Cheren seemed to agree with my thoughts. "You'll be my opponent… in our first pokémon battle!" Well, _his _first. "Let's see what you can do, Tepig!"

The pig pokémon strutted out to stand before its trainer, its coil tail springing all the while.

This battle wasn't much different from the last, except about ten times less disastrous. Snivy decided not to bother attempting to dodge attacks, and all that went on was, more or less, back and forth tackling. It was a close call, but my snivy, with its barely higher speed, managed to get in the last attack just before the tepig. The tepig fell to the ground in a manner similar to the way my bookshelf did, and Cheren recalled it. It had been a close battle.

"Ah! So that's a pokémon battle!" Cheren said in wonder. He murmured, looking down at his pokéball, "I've finally become a trainer. Everything starts from here." Louder, he said, "I made a strange blunder in my first battle, but this feeling I have…"

I would rather his feelings were about the person he battled with, not the battle itself.

"I'm finally a trainer," he finished. "But first, we'd better go apologize to your mother about this messed-up room."

"Oh, I'd better come, too!" Bianca announced. She eagerly followed him down the stairs. Was there anything that got this girl down? I mean, you'd think I'd learn after being friends with her for ten years, but she always seemed so chipper. She lost her first pokémon battle, and she had seemed happier than ever. Seeing my room ruined? It only got her more pumped up. Maybe I was lucky to have such a happy friend.

I took one final glance at the now disorganized state of my room and headed downstairs. Mom, Cheren, and Bianca were all standing together, and as I came over, they made room for me to join.

"I'm very sorry about all the trouble, ma'am," Cheren apologized politely to my mom.

Bianca joined in with, "Well, um… We can clean up…"

My mom laughed at the both of them. "Cleaning up? No worries. I'll take care of it later. Shouldn't you be on your way to meet Professor Juniper?"

Cheren nodded with a grateful smile. A rather handsome smile, at that. "Yes, thank you! Please excuse us." He turned his head to look at Bianca and me. "Come on. Let's go thank Professor Juniper." He was still giving a rather handsome smile, so all I could do was nod dumbly. Then, as if noticing my stare, he looked directly at me. "I'll be waiting in front of the Pokémon Research Lab." I'd rather meet him around the back—there were some nice trees that could easily hide people from view—years of hide and seek taught us that. Let Bianca go to the front of the lab. Cheren and I could go to the back instead…

Before my thoughts could get too carried away, Bianca looked up sharply. "Oh! Wait! I've gotta go home first." Clutching onto her purse, she turned to my mom and gave her a final smile. "Thanks for having us over!" She walked out, and Cheren went with her. Of course, my eyes were all on Cheren.

My mom walked up to me with a humorous glint in her eyes. "My, my, Hilda." Uh, she didn't catch on to me liking Cheren, did she? After all these years, she couldn't have somehow just now noticed! She continued, "Pokémon battles are so lively, aren't they?" Seeing the worried, startled look in my eyes (that was for a different reason than wondering, as she thought, how she knew we were battling upstairs), she explained, "I could hear the pokémon's cries clear down here! Hm. That sure reminded me of my first pokémon battle!" She got a dreamy look in her eyes and twirled a lock of her brown hair before turning to me. "Oh, and you know? After a battle, you need to rest your pokémon!" She held out her hand, and I handed her Snivy's pokéball, and she held it for a while before handing it back. "Actually, your pokémon is looking great! Now, if you're going out, don't forget your 'cross-transceiver'!"

She handed me the cross-transceiver, and I strapped it onto my wrist. The cross-transceiver was, more or less, a recent phone that came out. It looked like a watch with an overly large screen which was used to show the person using it and the person being communicated with as they're talking. Up to four people could be shown on the screen at one time. With a number that large (which didn't seem as large as it was), the people on the screen were small, only just large enough to recognize them.

As I stared at it, my mother said, "You're going to thank the professor too, right? Better get going, honey! Oh wait!" She walked over to the table and picked up a notebook off it. "This journey may become one of the most important parts of your life. To remember it better, I suggest journaling." She handed me the notebook and I flipped through it. The covers looked surprisingly durable, and there wasn't a single mark on any of the pages. "There will be times where you feel you need to write down what is happening, and other times when you feel you won't need to. Write anyway. Save your progress all the time. Before you can forget anything that's happened. If you become famous, you could probably make loads of money off making copies of it!" She laughed. "Now, go on to Professor Juniper. Bye, sweetie!"

I smiled at her, took a final glance at the television. It was broadcasting loudly, "…a couple of genius musicians who live in an exceptionally high part of Accumula Town! Hello! Why are you living in such a high-up place?"

The screen switched to show a woman who then said, "I wanted to live in a house where I could make music without bothering anyone, but I also want to live close to the city and all its people."

I almost got totally distracting watching it, but I forced myself to look away and leave. A man's words from the television followed me out. "Also, I thought it would be nice if our music could ride the wind…"

Musicians in Accumula... Since I had lived in Nuvema all my life, I knew Accumula was the town on the other side of Route 1, but I had never actually been there. I had seen it at a distance, but it wasn't an important place to go. Now, starting my journey, it would be an important place. Maybe I'd even meet those musicians. See if their music could ride on the wind like the man wanted.

Outside my house, I took a deep breath of fresh air. I thought back to my mom since I had just left her. Maybe I should have said bye, too? I didn't really see a point in it. She knew I was leaving. It wasn't worth dwelling over.

Looking around, I saw Bianca turning the corner to the front of her house and Cheren going to stand in front of the lab. A flock of pidoves flew off, and I saw a woobat swoop from the sky to perch on Cheren's chimney. Night was definitely beginning to fall. The sun was entirely gone out of the sky, but strips of light could still be seen on the horizon. I began walking towards Cheren, and I slowly realized that Bianca would be late again, so Cheren and I would be alone together. I'd have another chance to admit how I felt.

As I approached him, I found I just couldn't do it. Nervousness was settling in, and my legs began to feel shaky. Despite how much I wanted to be alone with him, actually being there, actually saying what I wanted to… There was no way I could.

When I was closer but still at a distance, I waved at him and called, "I'm going to go check on Bianca!"

He nodded to show that he heard me, and I started a light jog towards Bianca's house. So, maybe I would never be able to tell Cheren how I felt. It was probably for the best. He probably didn't like me that way anyway. Since we grew up together, he probably considered me as more of a sister. When you grow up with someone, say, an opposite gender sibling, your brain releases a chemical that recognizes the person as being related to you, so you can't fall in love with them. Scientifically, that was supposed to happen also with neighbors and friends you grew up with too, so your brain recognized them as being "related," and you won't become smitten with them. Your brain considers them as your sibling. And dating a sibling is just wrong.

Yet, apparently, I just bypassed that rule by liking Cheren in the first place. Whoops.

When I got outside of Bianca's house, I stood outside the door for a moment to catch my breath. I hadn't been running that fast, but… I felt stressed. Even though I hadn't asked, I felt like I had been rejected by Cheren. Nothing had happened between us, but my mind was telling me that he turned me down. He didn't want me. With these thoughts in mind, maybe I shouldn't even go back to talk to him—to go to the professor. What was a pokémon journey anyway? Maybe I should just go get a job somewhere.

Forcing my mind to be blank of these thoughts, I turned the doorknob and opened the door to Bianca's house. I was greeted with a yell of, "No, no, a thousand times no!" I winced, and as I stepped in, I could see Bianca had nearly cringed. Her shoulders were hunched up as she faced her red-faced father.

Still, Bianca proved she had some strength in her and objected, "But, I'm… I'm a good trainer who got a pokémon and everything! I can totally go on an adventure!" She squared her shoulders up stubbornly and started walking towards the door. Although she was looking straight in my direction, it took until she was almost right in front of me to notice my presence. She looked shocked for a moment before she nodded with downcast eyes. "Oh… It's okay." As if she needed to convince herself, she slowly said, "…It's fine! I'll be waiting for you in front of the lab, okay?" She brushed past me and walked out. I gave a last look at her angry father before quickly following her.

As we walked into the lab with Cheren, Professor Juniper greeted us warmly, "Welcome! I've been waiting for you!" She laughed. "Let me introduce myself again. My name is…"

"Professor Juniper?" Cheren interrupted as politely as an interruption can be. "We know your name."

She looked at him, reprimanding. "Come, come, Cheren! This is not a time to take things lightly. Today is a day to remember always, so it's best to behave with some formality." She fixed herself with a cheery smile again. "That being so, once again, my name is Professor Juniper, and I am researching when and how the creatures called pokémon came into existence. And now, as for why I gave you all pokémon…"

Cheren interrupted again, "It's for the pokédex, right?"

Bianca leaned forward so that she could see him without me being in the way, and she gave him a confused look. "Pokédex?"

Professor Juniper, more happy to be interrupted this time, exclaimed, "I am astonished. Nice work, Cheren! You have already studied pokémon extensively, haven't you?" For the sake of Bianca and me, she clarified, "The pokédex is a high-tech device that automatically records the pokémon you encounter! So, I want the three of you to visit many places and meet all of the pokémon in the Unova region! This is my request. Hilda! Cheren! Bianca!" she addressed, "You'll go on an adventure to complete the pokédex, will you not?"

"Okay!" Bianca excitedly exclaimed. "I mean… yes, professor!"

"Thank you very much," Cheren said formally. I bet he had another handsome smile on his face, but I resisted turning to look. Cheren continued saying, "Because of you, I can become a pokémon trainer, exactly as I've always wished."

I simply nodded silently, and Professor Juniper accepted that. "All of you, thanks! You have given me the best possible answer!"

She handed each of us a pokédex, and I flipped it open to inspect it a bit. It immediately picked up on Snivy in front of me and relayed information on the screen about him, but Professor Juniper started talking again, so I closed the pokédex, planning to read more later.

"Next, I need to teach you how to meet pokémon. Please meet me at Route 1, okay?" Bianca and I stepped aside so the professor could walk by without having to go around us all.

Bianca turned her eyes to the ground as she recalled her oshawatt. Nervously, she questioned, "S-since the professor asked us, it's okay to go on an adventure, right?" I couldn't help but cast a worried look at Bianca. She wasn't considering backing out because of her father, was she? I mean, I guess that's as good a reason as any, but… She continued, "I can explore and maybe find out what I want to do in life. I think I'd like that." She looked back up, and I smiled gently at her.

Cheren agreed, "Of course. We can travel however we want while we complete the pokédex."

I nodded, recalled Snivy, put my pokédex in my bag, and started out the door, intent on starting already. Bianca followed eagerly while calling, "Heeey! Hilda, wait up!"

I was already stopped. None other than my mom was already standing outside waiting for us to leave.

"Oh, there you are! And…? What did the professor have to say?"

I was wondering why she thought the professor was supposed to tell us anything—we had just gone to thank her, but I pulled my pokédex out, and confirmed, "She asked us to complete the pokédex."

My mom gasped. "She asked you to complete the pokédex? I can't believe it!" Then she laughed. "Well, actually, I can. I already knew she was going to ask." She laughed again and stepped closer. "That's why I brought you three of these town maps. Take them with you! Here you are, Cheren. And one for you, too, Bianca." She handed me mine without saying anything.

Cheren replied, "I'll take good care of it."

Bianca's head had perked up as she was given one too, and she said, "Th-thank you so much!"

Ah yes, undoubtedly, maps would be handy. They were digital maps, battery powered, and I resisted flipping mine open to see what it was like. I'd be experiencing the Unova region first hand soon, and until then, well, I knew my way around town well enough. I didn't need a map for that. I could wait until I was out of the town to see what the map was like.

"As for your room, Hilda—or what's left of it…" She fixed us with an oddly happy smile that didn't quite match the subject matter of the ruins of my room. "No need for any of you to worry. I'll take care of tidying up. Okay, Hilda?" Yeah, she was going to clean it all up by herself? That smile definitely shouldn't have been as happy as it was. "Ah, pokémon. They are so cute, but they have enough power to destroy a bedroom! They are really something. With pokémon like that at your side, you'll be safe wherever you go! I'm sure you'll find lots and lots of places you like in the Unova region—and become wonderful adults! Have a great trip!" She gave us each a final smile before turning and walking back to the house.

Cheren looked down at his town map just as I had been, and Bianca and I turned to look at him as he looked up at us and spoke. "Shall we head to Route 1? The professor's waiting."

Eagerly, Bianca responded, "Let's go, let's go!"

Cheren and Bianca hurriedly began walking towards Route 1, and if they weren't clearly walking, I would have said they were racing since they appeared so hurried. I took a final look at the town I called home, and I followed after them at a more nostalgic pace. It was night time, and we were leaving on a pokémon journey. Maybe it would have been smarter to wait until morning, but why put it off? It was now or never.

Well, maybe they could wait just a few minutes. I pulled my notebook out of my bag and searched a bit longer for a pencil, and then I wrote down what had happened so far. Nothing much, but well, it was a start.

/-/-/-/-

As I approached the beginning of the route, I stepped on a random twig (to be honest, it was half-intentional; I could have avoided it if I wanted), and Bianca turned around at the sound.

"Hilda…" she called, "It's this way!"

I got closer, and she stepped aside so I could stand next to Cheren. As I thought about him, he turned and looked at me. "Bianca says if we're starting a journey together, she wants us all to take our first step at the same time."

Bianca scooted closer and more or less repeated, "Hey, Hilda! Let's all take our first step on Route 1 together."

"Okay," Cheren started, rolling his eyes subtly. "Here we go!"

"One," Bianca counted, "two!" On the count of three we all, synchronized almost perfectly, moved our right foot down onto the route.

We all let out a small laugh (mostly Bianca and me), and Bianca exclaimed, "Oh! I wonder what will happen! Isn't this so exciting?"

"It sure is!" Cheren agreed. "C'mon, the professor's waiting!" We all walked towards where Professor Juniper was patiently waiting for us. Cheren began, "Professor Juniper, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

Just you? We kind of all are sorry, Cheren. Still, it was hard to get angry at him over misuse of words when it was Cheren. Even when he was just looking out for himself, he was still rather cute.

Professor Juniper didn't pay much mind to what he said anyway. "Now that everyone's here, I'll explain. The pokédex's pages update automatically whenever you meet a pokémon. Moreover, it's set up so that you obtain even more information when you catch a pokémon! To make this clear, I'm going to demonstrate how to catch a pokémon."

She walked into the tall grass, and as we watched, she found a wild pokemon, weakened it, and demonstrated how to catch it. As she walked back towards us, I noticed the shiny red of the pokéball reflected oddly well in the moonlight.

Professor Juniper asked, "Did you see that, just now? That's basically the way to catch wild pokemon. And to wrap this up in the best way, I have a gift for you—some pokéballs!" She handed some to each of us, and I put them in the top pocket of my bag so I'd have easy access to them. Easy enough, at least. To make sure she got the point across, she continued, "I'm going on ahead. I'll be waiting for you in Accumula Town! You might want to wait until morning though. Try camping out on the route—then tomorrow I'll see if you guys actually have what it takes to travel." She laughed and began walking to Accumula Town.

Cheren stared after her before turning to Bianca and me and saying, "I'm heading to Accumula Town, too."

"I think I'll go, too," Bianca confirmed with a nod. Really, guys? Had there been any doubt? Weren't we all going on an adventure together? Bianca looked peacefully happy for a moment before she spontaneously looked excited. "Wait a minute! Hey, listen! Hilda, Cheren, I thought of something fun!"

Giving credit where it's due, she usually was the one to think of the most fun things to do. My hearing perked up in interest as I wondered what she was going to say.

"But we need to get going!" Cheren protested. He was right, too. It was nighttime, after all. He continued, "We need to make sure we can go and get enough sleep because tomorrow morning, I'd imagine the professor will be waiting, and we don't want to waste her time by having her wait for us."

"Would you just listen a sec?" Bianca huffed. "Seriously! Why don't we see who can catch the most pokémon? The person carrying the most pokémon, including the one received from Professor Juniper, is the winner!"

"Huh," Cheren contemplated. "Actually, that sounds interesting. It will fill up pokédex pages, so I'm sure it will please the professor, too. Okay, then." He nodded. "Until we reach Accumula Town, take care of healing your pokémon at your own house."

I sneaked a look at Bianca and, as expected, I saw her wince a bit. She wouldn't be going back to her house—not with her father there. "Actually," I bargained, "Let's up the stakes a bit. No going back home. We stay on the route all night, and the only time we can leave is tomorrow to get to Accumula Town. If we can go home, who's to say we're not chickening out from spending the night on the route like the professor wants?"

Bianca and Cheren nodded their agreement to this new addition to the rules. I hoped I had a potion somewhere in my bag. Otherwise, as much as I knew Snivy was strong, we might not even make it to the end of the route.

Bianca smiled happily and started taking her first steps. "Me and Oshawatt will do the best for sure!"

She and Cheren began walking out onto the route. I took a few more moments to stay behind and write what had just happened. Would all of this really matter to me in the future? Sure, I was recording my memories by writing them down, but what was so serious about it anyway? All we were doing was trying to fill up a pokédex. How life changing could that be?

/-/-/-/-

If there was anything I was grateful for, it was the nighttime. I could feel the humidity in the air, and I knew that if it was day time, I would have been absurdly hot. As it was now, I was still sure it wasn't below eighty degrees, but without the sun shining down, that didn't seem too bad. Tomorrow though, I'd probably be travelling on Route 2 in the middle of the day. That couldn't possibly be enjoyable.

As if to rip me out of my thoughts, a lillipup barked at me. I jumped—it was night time, I was alone, and it was a loud noise. How could I not be momentarily frightened? Without much thought, I quickly tossed out Snivy's pokéball.

The lillipup crouched down—the shaggy fur around its head dragged in the dirt— and growled, and Snivy seemed to stretch up higher and kept its arms crossed in an "I'm too cool for this" gesture.

"Snivy, tackle!"

Snivy abruptly lunged forward and knocked the lillipup to the ground. The lillipup, in return, rolled them both over, jumped off, and then came back with a tackle of its own. In a way that almost made me feel bad about the battle in the first place, Snivy let out a cry from being hurt by the attack. Still, he got back up with determination in his eyes.

Yeah, I really hoped I had a potion with me. "Snivy, stay strong! Tackle it again!"

Snivy followed my order and tackled the lillipup a second time. The lillipup staggered a bit, bounded a short distance away, and then growled before running to tackle Snivy again. The sound of Snivy's previous cries echoed in my ears, and before I put much thought into what I was doing, I grabbed out one of the empty pokéballs and chucked it at the running lillipup in hopes that it wouldn't be able to hurt Snivy again.

Looking back, I should have been shocked at how I had actually aimed perfectly under pressure, but instead, I was holding my breath and staring at the wiggling pokéball on the ground. Just as the professor's had, the pokéball wiggled three times before letting out a small click. Feeling pumped with adrenaline, I ran up to Snivy and gave the small creature a hug.

"We did it! We did it! We did it!" I cried happily. I put the snivy down, and he looked up at me happily. I reached forward to pet his head and said, "Good job! If all our battles are so successful—especially with catching, we'll have the pokédex filled in no time!"

Snivy scooted away from my hand and rubbed his head where my hand had been while giving me another "I'm too cool for this" look. I wasn't sure what to make of that since it had looked happy only moments before, but then, you know, I probably wouldn't want someone rubbing my head either. That's a number one reason to wear a baseball cap all the time, right there.

Regardless, I smiled at Snivy again before getting up and looking around. The first thing I noticed was, of course, that I had left the captured lillipup on the ground. I walked over to it, crouched down, and picked it up. My first captured pokémon.

I turned around and opened the pokéball. The small lillipup came out and looked around. It saw Snivy, and it simply turned around to look at me instead. Snivy seemed to glare at it as it turned, and I wasn't entirely certain that the lillipup hadn't given it some rude look before looking at me instead. It was looking at me with a fairly neutral expression, but then it simply lied down on the ground in front of me and wagged its tail (_thump_, _thump_, _thump_) against the ground. Snivy came closer and simply stood next to the puppy with his typical expression. I smiled and recalled them both.

So, I had two pokémon. Lillipup seemed to be a bit at odds with Snivy, but hopefully that was only temporary. It was probably because Lillipup had just lost. Or didn't get to finish his attack. There were plenty of battle reasons to explain it. Hopefully, they didn't just dislike each other. What would happen if two pokémon on the same team disliked each other? That definitely wouldn't make this journey any more enjoyable.

I started walking along the route again, and I began wishing I had Cheren's sense of style. Or even Bianca's. I mean, sure, it was summer, but this tall grass was really beginning to get to me. I couldn't deny how I loved my shorts and my own sense of style, but having to constantly feel the grass constantly brush against my thighs was kind of awkward. To distract myself, I looked up at the sky instead.

The moon was out tonight, and it was a few nights short of being a full moon. It was still reasonably bright though, which was probably one of the reasons I wasn't bothered by all this walking around at night. I mean, I wasn't afraid of the dark or anything, but… I guess it's partly because of the way people are raised. We're told from early childhood not to go walking around at night, so it just seemed wrong to be doing it now. Maybe it's just a part of growing up. I rolled my eyes.

Bored, I started looking for constellations. I could see a few of the more obvious ones, but I never could see any of the ones like Bouffalant or Fraxure or Scolipede. Who saw pokémon in the stars anyway? Clouds, I could understand, but the stars seemed almost random. Even when I saw pictures of the constellations labeled with what they were, I still couldn't understand how it could be seen. But apparently they were. Maybe—

I had what seemed as less than a second to shoot my arms out to catch myself as I tripped towards the ground. Even catching myself, my palms stung and my knees were scraped. "Ouch," I whimpered, and I looked back to see what tripped me. Oddly enough, I couldn't see anything there. Did I trip over my own feet?

A sharp hiss to the right answered me. A patrat stood there with a rather upset expression, and I could guess from the dirt on only one of its sides that it had been sleeping, and as I was looking at the stars, I tripped over it. Well, I'd be upset too. It was standing fiercely and was baring its teeth at me. Despite how it had a vicious expression, I couldn't decide whether it looked more like a rat, as its named seemed to say, or a raccoon. The black around the eyes definitely seemed more like a raccoon.

It hissed at me again, so I quickly stood up and reached for one of my pokéballs and threw it. As the pokeball was in the air, I couldn't help but wonder if maybe I should have looked to see which pokémon I grabbed for, but well, it was too late now.

In a flash of light that didn't match the night at all, the lillipup I just caught appeared in front of me. Taking in the scene before myself, I ordered, "Lillipup, leer!" Considering Lillipup's weakened state from fighting Snivy, I probably should have gone on to just doing tackle, but Lillipup followed my demand and leered at the angry patrat. The patrat shrunk down a bit and lost some of its vicious expression, but then it suddenly jumped forward in a tackle.

Lillipup bared its teeth as soon as the brunt of the force was over, and as soon as I said, "Tackle!" he was darting forward, and in a rare opportunity of how the patrat was standing, Lillipup managed to hit its opponent right in the stomach. Patrat flew back, and I took this as the opportune moment to try and catch it. It was another addition to the pokédex, right? Taking aim, I threw an empty pokéball at the wild pokémon.

It missed. It came close, but it flew over where the patrat was and landed underneath a tree. Well, there were more where that one came from. And hopefully I'd have better aim. The second pokéball I threw stayed true to its course and enveloped the patrat in a white light. Out of what hopefully wasn't just sheer luck, the pokéball shook its simple three times and clicked.

"Good job, Lillipup!" I called to my battle partner. He came bounding up to me, and sat in front of me, waving his tail and panting. I scratched his head, and he took more of a liking to that than Snivy did. Well, the differences between dogs and reptiles were pretty large, so it made sense.

I left Lillipup outside of his pokéball temporarily, and he dutifully followed me as I retrieved Patrat and the pokéball that had fallen under the tree. Maybe, I thought, I should practice aiming some time. If I was going on a journey to catch pokémon and fill up the pokédex, it'd probably be good if I could actually, you know, hit the pokémon with a pokéball. I couldn't just keep getting all these lucky hits.

I put the patrat's pokéball in my bag's pocket, and after smiling again at the one who just won me this additional entry to the pokédex, I put Lillipup back in his pokéball and put that in my bag, too.

I looked idly at my cross-transceiver as I continued walking. It was 10:58. It seemed so strange to be starting the pokémon journey at night. Any time I thought about it in the past, I imagined it being the middle of the day or even morning. Starting at night… It almost felt like we were being inducted into some kind of spy group or even a cult.

I rolled my eyes at my thoughts becoming overdramatic out of boredom. Now that I knew to watch where I was stepping, I hadn't run into any more pokémon. They were likely all sleeping. I wouldn't be surprised if it was eleven by now. Bianca and Cheren probably went to sleep already too since we planned on meeting in the morning. It wouldn't be good to oversleep. Plus, if I woke up early enough, I could see if there were any other pokémon that showed up early in the morning but not late at night. It was a win-win situation to stop and go to sleep.

Still, when I finally decided to go to sleep, I found it difficult. Now that I was a pokémon trainer, I didn't want to stop even to sleep. With a sigh, I sat up and looked around. Without much of a wait, I found a rock. It was small and somewhat lightweight. Good enough.

I looked around and spotted a tree a short distance away. I spared a last glance at the rock in my hand before taking aim and throwing it. It missed the tree, but what did I expect? I jogged over to get it, and I jogged back. I threw it again, missed even worse, retrieved it, and came back again.

I did it over and over, and on the fifth try, I scraped the side of the tree with it. Maybe I should have simply tried getting closer to the tree, but I was beginning to like the challenge. On the seventh try, I hit it dead on. I kept trying anyway, and although my aim didn't seem to be making any vast improvements… it was a start. I could keep trying every day, and before too long, my aim might be considerably better. If I wanted to catch all the pokémon I could, then I had to try to do all I could to make that happen.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Well, there you have it! The first chapter of Shorts. What do you think? Too long? Too short even? Too much following the script? Any thoughts?

Any review, good or bad, is entirely welcome! Reviews make my day!


	2. Of Music,Speeches,and Changing the World

Chapter 2

_Of Music, a Speech, and Changing the World_

* * *

><p>The next morning, the sun was blatantly heating things up to beyond acceptable summer temperatures, and I found that, despite the awkward feeling of grass along my thighs, I was truly grateful for my shorts. I was really curious as to how Cheren must be feeling: he was always wearing long sleeves and pants. He was probably melting at this very moment. Maybe, he was sensible enough to at least take off his jacket.<p>

I continued along, happily thinking of Cheren (without his jacket on, of course). I would occasionally see some pokémon, but I tried to avoid them. All I saw were lillipups and patrats, which I already had in my collection. I'd see some pidoves in trees, but any time I even began to approach them, they would fly off. My two captured pokémon were probably enough for now anyway.

When I felt like I was getting to the end of the route, I did start fighting a few more pokémon— if only so I could get used to my current ones. It wouldn't be smart to rush into any battles without get used to my pokémon first. That may have worked during my first two fights in my room, but out here, if I ran into any trainers, they, unlike Bianca, Cheren, and I, would have experience working together with their pokémon.

Snivy was my most dedicated pokémon. Lillipup may have been more eager (Patrat didn't even seem to care; she just did whatever I said), but Snivy was carefully focused on the battle and every order I gave. There was only one time he acted without me telling him to, and it was probably for the best, honestly. It was against a lillipup that had a strong tackle—Snivy had been really weakened, and the lillipup was running at him to get another tackle. I knew if I ordered tackle, they would just hit each other, and Snivy would faint from the collision, yet I doubted Snivy would be able to dodge. So, I could only stare dumbly as the lillipup got closer and closer… and was knocked back with a vine whip. So Snivy knew vine whip. I hadn't even thought of that.

With just one more smack from the vine whip, the lillipup was down. I gave Snivy another hug after that, but this time, I knew better than to pet his head. I may not know everything, but I can at least try to learn what I can. My pokémon were trying their hardest, so I had to too.

When I felt like I had trained enough—which wasn't much, it was just learning the basics—I continued on to Accumula Town. A glance at my cross-transceiver told me it was 10:12. That's still morning, isn't it? Close enough.

At the end of the route, I stepped out of the tall grass, and the first person I saw was Cheren. I self-consciously brushed some dirt off my clothes and hoped my hair didn't look too bad or that my knees didn't look too nasty from where they were scraped after I tripped on Patrat. It wasn't like I could take a shower out here. Well, hopefully Cheren was one of those guys who could look past physical appearance and see a girl for who she was on the inside.

And come to think of it, he probably wouldn't even care. He knew me since we were little kids. We played in the mud together back then. I couldn't possibly look worse than I did then.

I approached him, and he noticed me long before I got into talking range, but he waited until I was closer to say, "Hilda, are you going to compare yourself with Bianca? Both Bianca and I have two pokémon with us."

Well, that turned out to be an effective method of figuring out who won, and I hadn't even talked to Bianca yet. But if she and Cheren both only caught one… I had the most because I caught the only two I could even find on this route. Somehow that seemed almost anticlimactic, but what was I to expect? That, just because we were starting out, some super awesome pokémon would pop out? Just for us? If only life could be like that. Maybe in that alternate reality, Cheren would actually date me. Or at least be interested me. What a great life that would be.

Cheren didn't say anything more, and I realized I was just standing awkwardly in front of him, so I walked past and continued to where I saw Bianca waiting. I noted happily that Cheren hadn't seemed bothered by my appearance. That was cheering. I did notice, though, that he was still wearing his jacket. What did he think it was—autumn or winter? Well, there were still three months until September, so he hopefully wasn't thinking that.

Bianca smiled brightly at me. She looked like she was even enjoying being out in the summer heat. Bianca always seemed to be the happiest among us—just because of that, I wouldn't be surprised if she became the strongest trainer in our trio. Just because she had the uplifting spirits that Cheren and I had a tendency to lack.

"How about it, Hilda?" she prompted. "Do you want to compare which one of us has the most pokémon with them?"

I nodded and returned her bright smile as well as I could. "Yeah. I'm ready." And of course, Cheren already pretty much spilled that I won. As the said boy stepped closer, I pulled out my three pokéballs: Snivy, Lillipup, and Patrat.

"Wow!" Bianca exclaimed. "Three? That's awesome! Both Cheren and I only captured one pokémon. Are you excited to have that many pokémon with you?"

"Mmhmm!" I confirmed with a laugh as I put my pokéballs back into the pocket of my bag.

"Well," Cheren started as he looked out towards the buildings of the town they were now next to, "this is only the start of our journey. We still have a long way to go. I'm off to Accumula Town! The professor is waiting, and I'm sure she has a busy schedule to maintain."

Just as he was taking his first step away, each of our cross-receivers started ringing. We all looked at each other before simultaneously clicking the green "accept call" button. Each of us appeared on the others' screen along with a fourth figure: Professor Juniper.

"Oh! Professor!" Bianca exclaimed.

"Hello!" Professor Juniper greeted, wiping sweat off her brow. "How is everybody doing? I see you all survived the night, but the question now is… can you handle the heat?" She laughed and continued, "You and your pokémon are getting along great now, right? I'm sure you've been bonding and battling with your pokemon a lot, so we should probably at least do something about your pokemons' injuries. Right now, I'm in front of Accumula Town's Pokémon Center! I'd like to show you around, so hurry on over, everyone! It'll be a nice air-conditioned break for you guys, and your pokemon will love you for it."

"Okay!" Bianca agreed, apparently speaking for us all. "The Pokémon Center, right!"

"Okay! See you!" Professor Juniper was cut off the screen, and shortly, everyone else was too. We looked up at each other.

Cheren was the first to speak. "Well, I'm going on ahead."

As he left, Bianca turned to follow him, but I said, "Hey, Bianca, wait." As she turned to me, I told her, "I'm going to be a bit late. There's some people I want to meet in Accumula Town first. So… I might be a bit delayed."

She gave me a curious look but then smiled at me anyway. "Of course, Hilda. Just don't take too long, okay?" Bianca followed where Cheren had gone into town. I stayed behind a bit longer to make a quick, brief entry in my journal. I was only going to Accumula Town, and nothing life changing would probably happen there, but I didn't want to forget anything.

As soon as I finished my rather short journal entry, I continued into town. It was larger than Nuvema Town—probably three times larger. Not that that was saying much. The only true feature of Nuvema was that it had the Juniper Pokémon Lab. And since it was a lab that was meant to have a bunch of pokémon, it was intentionally put in a place where few people lived.

Over some buildings, I could see where the Pokémon Center was, but I temporarily ignored it for something else I saw in the distance—a large concrete stairway leading up to a small plateau with a house on top.

The interviewer for the musicians said that they lived up high in Accumula Town, right? I wanted to go by there before learning about the Pokémon Center. Bianca would tell the professor that I'd be a bit late, so I'd probably be fine… Maybe, I should have been acting more like Cheren when he said the professor had things to do, but I wanted to meet the musicians first. What if I forgot later?

Plus, I wanted to see if their music really did carry on the wind.

It was only once I got closer that I realized it might be a bad idea to go up to the house. Not because I was wasting time, but because of the stairs. The top was pretty high, and the stairs didn't even have a railing. Who made stairs going that high and didn't put up a railing? I swallowed forcefully and started walking up anyway. One side of the stairs had a "wall" from being bordered by the plateau, and I stayed as close to that wall as possible. I didn't make a fool out of myself and cling to it or anything, but I was pretty obviously staying away from the edge.

If there was one thing that terrified me to no end, it was heights. There were lesser fears like going really fast speeds or things like that, but nothing was as common as heights. Whenever we played hide and seek as kids, it could always be taken for granted I'd be behind a bush or something. I could never be the one hiding at the top of a tree like Cheren or Bianca could.

The only time I was okay with heights was when there was a definite barrier between me and the drop-off. But in this situation, there wasn't one.

When I got to the top, I forced myself not to look over the edge. It was at least a bit better up here since there was a railing circling the top of the plateau, but I still didn't feel like risking it. My stomach still felt a bit nauseous from the walk up here.

Still, when I turned around the corner of the house to get from the back to the side, I couldn't help but gasp. This definitely was the highest I had ever been. From my standpoint, I could see out over the town onto the roofs of buildings, and I could see the entire perimeter of the town itself. It admittedly seemed smaller from above, but it was still larger than Nuvema Town.

I felt more comfortable looking over the height since it was yards away, but the house didn't have a side door, so I'd have to get closer to go around to the front. I sighed and continued forward. Was it really this important to visit anyway? What if they didn't even like visitors?

By the time I got to the door, I was feeling kind of sick from having to get close to the edge, but at least it wasn't as close as the edge on the stairs had been. And this place had a railing. It could definitely be worse. Forcing the fact from my mind that there was a steep drop behind me, I knocked on the door.

The visit went exceptionally well. They played for me, and even as I left, they continued playing. Hearing the piano and drums was a mild comfort as I forced myself back down the stairs. The windows were left open to the house, and I found that the music really did carry on the wind. Even as I was walking farther away, the music didn't stop.

On the way to the Pokémon Center, I passed Cheren who was standing idly in the center of the town at the plaza. He was looking around the city idly as if wondering what to do, and I smiled at him as he noticed me.

"You're not getting the tour of the Pokémon Center?" I asked curiously. Of course, maybe he had already gotten one. How long had I stalled anyway? It didn't seem that long, but I could have been wrong.

He shrugged. "I know what Pokémon Centers are like already, so I figured I don't need the tour. I can't move on to the next route though because there are some people blocking it. They insist they're getting ready for something, but with absurd outfits like the ones they're wearing…" He sighed. "Bianca's still at the Pokémon Center, I think." I accepted that as an answer, and with a simple unreturned farewell I gave, I left to go to the Pokémon Center.

Professor Juniper was waiting outside for me, and she greeted, "Ah, Hilda! There you are!" As she turned to go inside, she said, "Please follow me. Traveling with your pokémon is truly one of the joys of being a trainer! I'd like to show you the most important place for a trainer to know!" As we stepped inside, she continued, "This is a Pokémon Center." She breathed in deeply. "Don't you feel better as soon as you step through the door?"

I followed her example and breathed in deeply. I think that was just the air-conditioning…

The tour was pretty basic, and although most of it was new to me, it didn't seem like it was anything difficult to learn. The most important thing to keep in mind was that the Poké Marts were inside the Pokémon Center too. I would have to come back and get more pokéballs sometime. And probably quite a few potions. When the tour was done, Bianca stayed behind to look at the shop, but after Professor Juniper left, I did too.

Outside, the hot air almost felt good for a moment since I had been in the air-conditioning so long, but I knew the temperatures would soon get unbearable. Just for amusement, I took out Snivy's pokéball and released him. He stared at me after looking around to see if he was supposed to battle something, but all I could do was smile hopelessly at him. "Sorry, I just wanted some company. Are you ready to go on a journey?"

He simply gave me one of his cool and collected looks and said, "Sniii." Well, he didn't sound upset, at least…

With Snivy close in tow, I began walking, and I noticed people were starting to gather near the plaza where Cheren had been earlier. Indeed, I saw Cheren running in my direction. He stopped once he saw me—which was understandable. Any reason to stop running in the summer is a good one.

"Hilda, come here a sec!" he called. Even without me, he began walking quickly back to the plaza. I hurried, and on my way, I passed people who were also beginning to notice what was going on. I could hear them murmuring about the crowd that was gathering.

"Looks like something's going on at the plaza!" a child declared excitedly.

His father nodded and said, "Well, let's have a little look-see."

I managed to force my way through the crowd to stand behind Cheren. I tried my hardest to ignore that I was behind my love interest and focus instead on what was going on. I felt Snivy climbing up my entire body to rest sprawled across my shoulders and behind my neck. Feeling him climb up me was kind of awkward, but his body was surprisingly cool, so I accepted his presence without putting him back in his pokéball, and I focused again on what was going on.

My first thought: doesn't anyone realize that it's summer? On the plaza, there were seven people standing in a perfectly straight line, and they were covered in clothes from head to foot. They even wore really poorly fashioned hoods that had random, thick, crossed string across the top, and I couldn't decide if the hoods looked more like simply awkward hats or like they were wearing bags on their heads. Their clothing almost resembled armor except that it was clearly made out of cloth. I was entirely befuddled as to how they could take the heat with such straight faces. Were these the people Cheren had mentioned were blocking the next route earlier?

Still, none of them could hold a candle to the man standing in front. The green haired man was wearing thick robes that looked like at least one more person could have fit comfortably inside, and there was some additional collared cape overcoat that could hardly be called a cape even. All around the edges except in the very front, it had blunt edges sticking up that had a large blue kind of rock studded on. In the very front, it had something hanging down with some sort of a logo fashioned on. A capital P with… a backwards Z? Maybe that was just supposed to be a cool background for the P.

And if it wasn't enough how his outfit didn't match the weather, it was flat out creepy, too. On both sides of the cape, the colors were inverted with the same design—huge eyes with jagged lines, not quite as sharp as lightning, coming out. Furthermore, looking at his face (he didn't look phased at all by the heat) he had a huge, bizarre, red eyepiece over his right eye. His one eye that could actually be seen, though, did look as though it had an intelligent gleam. I knew that look well enough from staring at Cheren so often.

"Thank you for coming to our presentation. My name is Ghetsis," he announced in a kindly voice. And yep, he had the knowledgeable tone of voice, too, that Cheren always did. "I am here representing Team Plasma. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to talk to you about pokémon liberation."

Murmurs of "Huh?" and "What?" traveled through the crowd, and even my eyebrows furrowed a bit in confusion. This definitely wasn't a topic I had heard of before.

Ghetsis paced over to the left to address the right side of the crowd and make sure they were hearing everything too. "I'm sure most of you believe that we humans and pokémon are partners that have come to live together because we want and need each other. However…" He had a dramatic pause. "Is that really the truth? Have you even considered that perhaps we humans… only assume that this is the truth?"

He walked back to the center. "Pokémon are subject to the selfish commands of trainers…" He paused. "They get pushed around when they are our "partners" at work…" He put in another pause. He almost looked pained by the subject of what he was saying. "Can anyone say with confidence that there is no truth in what I'm saying?"

The crowd shuffled around as everybody looked at each other. More murmurs went around.

"Yikes!"

"I don't know…"

"No way."

I wanted to reach out to Cheren and ask his opinion, but the crowd silenced and focused back on Ghetsis as he walked to the left side of the crowd—almost directly in front of Cheren and I— and continued, "Now, ladies and gentlemen, pokémon are different from humans. They are living beings that contain unknown potential. They are living beings from whom we humans have much to learn. Tell me, what is our responsibility toward these wonderful beings called pokémon?" I swear he looked right at me and Cheren, but then again, I noticed, he was looking at everyone. His gaze traveled through the crowd, seeming to meet everyone's eyes.

"What could it be?" someone whispered fretfully.

"Liberation?" someone else wondered, remembering what had been said earlier.

"That's right!" Ghetsis declared, somehow hearing that soft word as he moved back to the center of the plaza. "We must liberate the pokémon! Then, and only then, will humans and pokémon truly be equals. Everyone, I end my words here today by imploring you to consider the relationship between people and pokémon… and the correct way to proceed."

To be honest, I felt cold chills run down my arms as he said that, and it was simple enough to know that it wasn't from the temperature out here. Maybe it had to do with his downright scary robes or eyepiece, but something seemed weird about this guy. He seemed nice enough, but…

"We sincerely appreciate your attention," he finished, and the people behind him did something—I don't even know how to describe it. With massive organization skills, they grabbed the two flags with the capital P they had at each end of the plaza, created two lines with a single man in front to make a protective formation around Ghetsis, and walked him off the side of the plaza. In seconds, it was empty. As if no one had been up there in the first place.

The crowd began dispersing, and as it did, I could hear the confused people asking, "About that speech… What do you think we should do?"

A younger man skeptically said, "Liberate pokémon? That's not even possible!"

In less than a minute, the crowd was entirely gone except for me, Cheren, and some guy standing a little bit away. It was as if no one wanted to be seen at the place where that speech had just happened. Cheren turned and saw me, though I expected he knew I'd be there.

"Pokémon…" he started skeptically, "don't like being around people?"

I shrugged, and Snivy let out a few sounds consisting of hisses and "Sniiivy." Maybe I shouldn't have shrugged. It probably bothered him since he was on my shoulders.

The person who had been standing away approached us. The first thing I noticed was his green hair. Was he related to Ghetsis? No, I was probably just jumping to conclusions. If he was related to Ghetsis, he probably would have left with him.

He pulled his dark baseball cap further down as he stood in front of us. He was probably trying to block out the sun as much as possible, which was definitely understandable. Watching him mess with his hat made me want to the same with mine, but I kept my hands down at my side. He was looking right in my direction, and I didn't want to risk looking stupid in front of someone I didn't know.

"Your pokémon…" The guy said quickly with a confused look as he stared at Snivy. "Just now, it was saying…"

"Slow down," Cheren requested, giving the newcomer a strange look. "You talk too fast."

I rolled my eyes with a laugh. "Maybe we just talk slow, Cheren."

Cheren didn't seem to pay attention to what I said, and he continued, "And what's this about pokémon… talking? That's an odd thing to say."

"Yes, they're talking," the guy confirmed, now giving Cheren a weird look as if he should have known that from the start. Then, he merely said, "Oh. Then, you two can't hear it, either… How sad." Though, he sounded almost disdainful. Like, now he shouldn't even be talking to us anymore. And his speaking didn't slow down at all. I didn't mind, but I was sure Cheren didn't approve of it. Still, he continued, "My name is N."

Cheren spoke for us both and said, "My name is Cheren, and this is Hilda. We were asked to complete the pokédex, and we just left on our journey. My main goal is to become the Champion, though."

If N wasn't looking at us with distain before, he was now. "The pokédex, eh? So… You're going to confine many, many pokémon in pokéballs for that, then. I'm a trainer, too, but I can't help wondering… Are pokémon really happy that way?"

He took a moment to look away at where the man who had given the speech stood. Even if they weren't related by blood, they definitely seemed to be related in thought. Then, he abruptly looked back—right at me.

He walked closer until he was right in front of me. I had to look up even higher than I normally would have so that the rim of my hat wouldn't be in the way as I met his eyes. The combination of his hat and my hat blocked out the sun entirely between us. Then, he looked at Snivy before looking back at me. He was a few inches taller, but he was so confident that he seemed even taller. Almost intimidating. I tried to ignore that my heart was picking up in pace.

"Well, Hilda, is it? Let me hear your pokémon's voice again!" He walked backwards and pulled out a pokéball. He released it, and a purple cat with large, odd, pink eyebrows emerged from the light. It looked almost as collected as Snivy except that Snivy looked less conniving.

Snivy took up the challenge without even waiting for me to say anything. He jumped to the ground and took a defensive stance in front of the cat. I called for a vine whip, and Snivy immediately responded to sent out whips that made the cat hiss from the stinging and take a few steps back out of a natural instinct to get away.

"More!" N called to me. "Let me hear the voice of your pokémon! Purrloin, growl!"

I could have sworn I saw him wince when his pokémon got hit, yet he wanted more? Well, if he asked, I'd deliver. "Snivy, show him what you're got! Vine whip that cat again!" Err, he called it a purrloin? Yeah, I should have remembered that. I mean, even if he didn't say it, it wasn't a pokémon I was totally unfamiliar with. I had grown up in a small town, yes, but it wasn't like we were total recluses from society. There was television, and travelers would occasionally come by and—

I was broken out of my distracting thoughts when I heard N say, "Purrloin, tackle it now."

As Snivy's vine whip shot towards it, the purrloin got the full hit of the attack, but it recovered by sinking its claws into the vine, yanking Snivy forward, and then tackling it back full force. Snivy let out a pitiful cry since it hadn't been expecting the attack like that, but it gained a sudden determination in its eyes. Snivy was able to yank the purrloin into the air through a sudden force in the vines because the cat's claws were still latched onto them. Snivy let out a battle cry through the pain of the move and then slammed Purrloin down from the air onto the ground.

I was shocked by that move, and if the purrloin hadn't clearly fainted and been defeat by it, I might have called off the battle entirely. Or at least brought Snivy back closer to give it a potion. There were long, red scratches streaking down Snivy's vines from where the force of the move had made the cat's claws be pulled farther down the vine. The vines were now free of the claws, but those scratches didn't look good.

N had a shocked expression too, but his was almost a mixture of awe and horrification. "I never expected pokémon to say such things…" he murmured.

He recalled his fainted purrloin, and I recalled Snivy—but not before spraying an entire potion on its scratches. I'd be taking it to the Pokémon Center as soon as possible, but I hardly wanted to leave Snivy injured until then, so the potion was all I had to offer. This wasn't entirely me being caring though, I must admit. Pokémon are injured all the time in battles until they faint, so that was something to get accustomed to. The difference here was that, without even me asking, Snivy made his injuries worse all for the sake of winning a battle for me. I kind of owed it to him.

N sighed. "Pokémon will never become perfect beings. Not the way they are now. I have to change the world for pokémon because they're my friends." He looked almost remorsefully at his purrloin's pokéball.

"Well, no one's perfect," I protested. "But trainers do try to be friends with pokémon, and they try to help each other be the best they can. What more can be done?"

He scoffed. "That's what you've been told, isn't it? But do you wonder how the pokemon themsleves think? Trainers battling pokémon… using them for competition… not caring what the pokémon themselves feel… Pokémon will never be able to rise to their true potential with people holding them back like this."

Without giving time for another objection, he began walking in the direction of the next route.

And he planned to change the world? He had high aspirations, no doubt. But he did seem intent on his convictions. It was almost… admirable.

"Huh…" Cheren commented, turning to me. "Strange guy. But I'm not going to worry about it, and I suggest you don't either. Trainers and pokémon help each other out!" He looked like he thoroughly believed that, and after watching Snivy's performance, I would agree. Still, the words from N and from Ghetsis's speech echoed in my head. Just how much are trainers assuming?

"Listen, I'm going on ahead," Cheren told me. "I want to battle the gym leader in the next town—Striaton City. The best way for a trainer to become stronger is to challenge the gym leaders in each area." Without even saying good bye, he walked off in the same direction N had gone.

I couldn't help but stand still and watch him as he left. Cheren… When would I see him again? We were both going to Striaton, so maybe we'd at least see each other there even if we didn't have time to talk. And why wouldn't we have time? It's not like Professor Juniper gave us a time limit to complete the pokédex. Speaking of Professor Juniper, she had told Bianca and me during the tour that we were supposed to meet someone in Striaton City. Someone named Fennel, if I'm remembering correctly.

Then I remembered with painful force. Not a time limit or a person to meet, but I had an injured pokémon with me. And not just any pokémon—Snivy. It was probably wrong to play favorites on my team, but I had to admit that Snivy was becoming my preferred pokémon.

Without any more thoughts, I ignored the summer heat and made a mad sprint to the Pokémon Center with Snivy's pokéball grasped in my hand.

In the distance, I could still hear the faint duet of the piano and drums that continued as if nothing had happened.

**/-/-/-/-**

**A/N:** Chapter 2 is completed! And it's about half the length of the first chapter. Much better length, eh? Haha!

I've had to edit this chapter down so many times, so if there are any mistakes, I'd be glad to know them! One more edit can't hurt... I still haven't corrected the first chapter, but I'll get to that. I read the first chapter so many times that I can hardly even bear to look at it. But I'm glad you guys enjoyed it! Hopefully, you enjoyed this chapter too! **(Edit: Both chapters have now had the mistakes fixed, so if you see any that were missed, be sure to point them out!)**

Feel free to review! The reviews really did make my day last time, and I know they will again if you choose to do so! All your support makes me feel so honored and loved!


	3. In Which Not All Pokemon Like to Fight

Chapter 3

_In Which Not All Pokémon Like to Fight_

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Pokémon. (Yeah, I've forgotten to put disclaimers up until now. Whoops?)

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><p>With a bag full of pokéballs and potions, I stood alone in the entry way to Route 2. Cheren was long gone, and Bianca? I hadn't seen her after I had left her at the Pokémon Center following Professor Juniper's tour. I couldn't help but feel a small ache from being away from my friends. That may sound silly, but we had spent ten years being a close knit trio.<p>

Well, I'd see them soon enough. I mean, we couldn't be too far apart, could we? In the meantime, I had to be focusing on filling my pokédex.

After the battle with N, I had checked my pokédex about his pokémon, and apparently, purrloins could be found on this route. That was all the information it was willing to give at this point. Would I run into one? I hoped so. Professor Juniper wanted us to fill up the pokédex, and so we would. I would, at least.

The route passed by in a remarkably similar way to the first route. Even as far as temperature goes. Although it wasn't nighttime right now, Route 2 was incredibly well shaded. I hadn't been expecting it, and the surprise made me even more grateful.

There were few trainers to fight along the way, and most of them only provided momentary distractions (and monetary too, I suppose, since I won money from the battles). As the day wore on, I was pushing my pokémon to get stronger and stronger. It was ironic that Ghetsis's speech about having pokémon reach their full potential was beginning to have an opposite effect on me. To achieve pokémon with full potential… couldn't I just train more, and that goal could be reached? Was it necessary to release them—liberation?

And anyway, my main goal was to complete the pokédex. Becoming stronger was secondary to that.

Already, I had managed to find a purrloin and add it to my party. No other new pokémon seemed to be appearing on this route, and maybe, that was why I got a minor rush of happiness when I saw the outline of the Striaton buildings through the trees. Freedom at last. It'd be nice to take a break since I could see that the sun was already setting.

My feet would definitely appreciate stopping. The past twenty-four hours involved the most continuous walking I had ever done, for sure. I could feel a huge blister developing on the side of my right foot. I could just imagine the joy of laying down, propping my foot up on something…

"Hilda!" A voice called from behind me, breaking me out of my relaxing reverie. "C'mon, Hilda, wait up!"

I turned to the voice, and the grin that spread across my face was far from fake. "Bianca!"

Although we had seen each other earlier that day and we had gone without seeing each other for even longer in the past, the thought when we parted that we might not see each other for a long span of time… It felt great to meet up again.

"I've been training so much!" she informed me. "It's all so new to be battling pokémon, but it's so fun!"

I nodded, glad to hear that she was enjoying it. But of course, Bianca did enjoy almost everything. Including taking part in the battle that trashed my room. Well, she hadn't wrecked it intentionally… And it was my pokémon that created the mess even if it was being chased by hers.

"I'm filling up my pokédex well," I said. "I've been capturing anything I can find that I don't already have."

Her smile faltered for a moment. "I haven't really been catching too much. I'm just trying to get a handle on the pokémon I have so far." She let out a small sigh, but then she looked up, happier. "Hey, listen! Let's have a pokémon battle! Pleeeease? Since I've been focusing on making my pokémon stronger, and you've been focusing on catching more, we can test my pokémon against all the ones you've caught so far!"

"Um…" I let out a small laugh. "Just because I've been catching more doesn't prove that I haven't been raising the ones I have."

She shrugged, and her smile got wider. "Well, prove it then, Hilda."

I grinned back at her. "If you insist." I began walking backwards to create more space between us, and she did too.

Feeling ready to take on whatever she selected, I sent out Lillipup. The puppy barked at the pokéball that Bianca had thrown only moments after I threw mine. She hadn't had enough time to base her decision off my pokémon, and I wondered what pokémon she chose.

Maybe, I should have expected it based on the little variety of pokémon I had come across so far, but Lillipup's opponent turned out to be another lillipup. Well, at least I could expect that it probably wasn't yet trained enough to know how to do much other than tackling and leering. I knew mine didn't.

"Lillipup, tackle!" I called to my pokémon. It eagerly ran forward to attack as Bianca called for her lillipup to leer at mine.

The tackle was a solid hit, but admittedly, Bianca's lillipup didn't seem too affected by it. She really had been raising it a lot, hadn't she?

My thoughts were confirmed as I heard Bianca order, "Lillipup, bite!"

So hers knew something other than tackle and leer? I really was falling behind. But that move was just bite. Surely almost any pokémon with a mouth could bite? I considered trying it, but I was jerked out of my thoughts as I saw Bianca's lillipup take a large bite into the side of mine. Lillipup clearly looked hurt by it, but he shook it off as well as he could.

Despite feeling bad for my pokémon, I couldn't help but wonder if the opposing lillipup had a mouth full of fur now.

"Lillipup!" I called to it. "Keep it up! Bite it back!"

My lillipup turned and looked at me confusedly for a second since it wasn't used to the new command, but it accepted it and tried to follow it out. It darted forward and bit into the side of Bianca's lillipup just as the attack had been done to it before. Except that my lillipup had a much weaker bite since it wasn't accustomed to the move. It would get used to it eventually—now was as good a time to practice the move as any.

As Bianca and I both ordered bite as the next move, the two puppies bounded towards each other with their mouths already opened. They attacked just about simultaneously, and they rolled around on the ground together, teeth locked into the other's side. Admittedly, I lost track of which one was mine as they rolled and scuffled, but soon enough, one of them let go, and the other one flung it back in my direction.

I guessed that the one now at my feet was mine.

It stood a bit shakily, but it stood, nonetheless. Some compassionate part of me made me feel like recalling it, but should I have? It still had the will to do a bit more fighting, and if it was willing to fight, I was willing to let it.

Next, I called for a tackle (a move I knew Lillipup could execute almost perfectly by this point), and Bianca's lillipup was asked to do another bite attack.

My lillipup, as I expected, did a perfect tackle, but the other lillipup was prepared, and although it didn't do an "official" bite attack, it raked its teeth along Lillipup as it hit. This was too much for my already weak lillipup, and it collapsed to the ground. I didn't expect it to get back up. I recalled it to its pokéball and wondered what pokémon to send out next that had a chance of withstanding that bite. Patrat would put mild effort into it, but it wouldn't go the extra mile needed to win. Snivy could undoubtedly do it, but I wanted to save Snivy in case Bianca had another unexpected strong pokémon up her sleeve. I didn't have any others.

Except I did.

There was the purrloin I had just caught earlier in the day. It would still be a bit weakened from capture, but it had had some time to rest. Would it be strong enough to win though? It hadn't had any training with me yet, but it was a dark type, and if I recalled correctly, bite was a dark type move, so it wouldn't be very effective against Purrloin… Even without training, surely it could do well enough against Bianca's lillipup? My own lillipup had already done significant damage, so all Purrloin needed to do was finish it off.

Without any further thoughts, I pulled Purrloin's pokéball out of my bag and tossed it forward. "Purrloin, finish off this pokémon!"

The purrloin appeared, and it immediately sank back on its haunches and hissed at the dog in front of it. Its furry tail stood straight up as it tried to look fierce. The lillipup didn't look afraid at all—rather, it stood up taller and made its own fur rise up. Its ears laid back menacingly as it barked.

Purrloin was undoubtedly intimidated. It jumped back and moved to stand closer to me, as if I could protect it from the attacks. Well, there was nothing I could do about it. "Purrloin," I said. "Scratch the lillipup!"

It showed little inclination to move in that direction. It wasn't until a tackle ordered by Bianca that had the lillipup racing towards it that Purrloin started moving. Even then, it was more to try to dodge the attack than to scratch. Still, when the lillipup proved to be relentless in its attempt to tackle, Purrloin waited cautiously until it got close enough and then swiped its claws straight against the puppy's face. That didn't deter the tackle, and in fact, it seemed to have a more forceful tackle.

Purrloin didn't appreciate it at all. As soon as it got up from the tackle, it bounded over to me and started prodding at my leg with one of its forelegs. Its claws were sheathed, but it demanded my attention—not that I could have easily ignored it.

"What do you want?" I asked, confused. "Just go scratch it again!"

Purrloin gave a loud, whiney meow. What was its problem? It still had enough energy to fight, didn't it? I crossed my arms as I looked down at it. "What, Purrloin? Attack the lillipup! Scratch!"

It meowed again and refused to look away from me. I continued staring at it, and then I looked up at Bianca and the lillipup. Like me, they looked confused. Bianca seemed to be holding off on calling another attack for now.

With a sigh, I recalled the cat and put the pokéball back in my bag. I couldn't force the pokémon to attack. I could command them, but if they refused… I couldn't control that. Later, I would try to talk to it and see if I could convince it to want to fight. It seemed almost unusual. Didn't all pokémon fight? Even N's pokémon fought for him despite how he said he hated when pokémon fought.

But that was a matter to think about for another time. Now willing to do all I could to win, I pulled out Snivy's pokéball. If any of my pokémon could get me through this, it was him.

As Snivy appeared in a flash of light, he did look something like a hero who could save the day. If nothing else, he exuded confidence. The lillipup sensed this new challenge and growled lowly. Snivy turned up its nose at the dog. Like always, it thought itself as way above the other pokémon.

"Snivy, vine whip!"

"Lillipup, bite!"

If I didn't focus on the pokémon being hurt, I would have seen next fifteen seconds as an interesting spectacle to watch. As Snivy's vines shot towards Lillipup, the puppy agilely jumped over them as it ran towards its target. It managed to clamp down on Snivy's side without being attacked—up to that point. As soon as the lillipup's teeth were locked down, both of Snivy's vines held started slapping around at the puppy in short range. When the lillipup let go, Snivy continued whacking it until it retreated back. It looked a little bit worse for wear, but it was still standing.

Still, when Bianca called for another bite, my snivy made sure to hit it this time before it got to close. This move, in combination with its other injuries, was too much for the lillipup, and Bianca quickly recalled it.

"Okay! This little one is up next!" she called as she tossed out a different pokéball. In a flash of white, her oshawott appeared. Upon seeing it, my mind immediately started drawing conclusions. Oshawott was probably Bianca's last pokémon. It had to be. She wouldn't send a pokémon out that had a type disadvantage. Plus, Snivy had already beaten it once without even using any grass moves.

As Bianca called for Oshawott to do water gun, I ordered a vine whip. The vines clearly inflicted heavy damage on the water type, but from the distance, it still shot water out. The water didn't have much of an effect—except where Snivy had the bite marks on its side. The water seemed to cause discomfort by making Snivy squirm a bit, but it still held its ground. As soon as I asked for another vine whip, it attacked again.

The oshawott was now swaying back and forth on its feet, and as Snivy's second vine hit it, it fell backwards. Still, it struggled up, determined to win—or at least put up a good fight.

As soon as Bianca called for a tackle, it began running to ram into Snivy. Snivy tried to block it with another vine whip, but Oshawott forced itself through it to hit Snivy—right where it had been bitten. Snivy let out a hiss, and Oshawott backed away. It didn't get much farther though as Snivy retaliated with a tackle of its own.

The oshawott, having already been hit with multiple full-force grass moves, collapsed onto the ground. It had fallen much faster than the lillipup, but the lillipup hadn't been at such a disadvantage.

Bianca still told her pokémon it did a good job as she recalled it back to her pokéball. As I recalled my snivy, Bianca walked closer to me.

When she was close but still at a distance, she called, "Woo-hoo! You are a tough cookie, Hilda."

"Thanks!" I called back with a smile. "You did really well too! If we had been doing just two on two, you would have beaten me!"

She giggled. "Thanks! I think before it gets too late, I'm going to head back onto the route for some more training! I'm gonna work hard on training my pokémon so we won't lose anymore! We're going to get super strong!" She began walking back out onto the route.

She was walking away—I was continuing; she was going back. Just as it had earlier in the day, the thought rang in my mind that we may not see each other for a long time.

"Wait!" I yelled after her while starting to run towards her as fast as I could. Even as I saw her beginning to stop and turn around at the sound of my voice, I kept running closer. Only when I was right in front of her did I stop. I bent over and tried taking deep breaths. I didn't really run that far, but it seemed like it. I had already been tired, and my blister was a throbbing pain in my foot.

"Yes, Hilda?" she asked with a familiar curiosity. Across my thoughts of how out of shape I was, I couldn't help but think of her oshawott. It, too, had a strong sense of curiosity. They were probably a better match for each other than I had expected.

Feeling overheated, I pushed my hat up off my head for a moment before standing up straight. Then, I pulled my hat back down tighter and smiled at her. "Well, I was just thinking, you know, that it's, um, getting late. Instead of staying out on the route, why don't we head into town? I think there's a café or something. It said that on an electronic board I passed. And you don't need to train, anyway. I mean, I only barely won. It was close. I…" I was mumbling.

She giggled and put a hand on my shoulder. "Of course. It's no big deal, silly. You didn't have to run so hard to get over here, you know."

I laughed. I wasn't entirely sure why. I just… I felt relieved. "Of course," I repeated. "Yeah. You're right."

She giggled again, and together, we began heading into town. From the entrance, I couldn't tell how large it was, but it definitely had taller buildings than either of the towns I had already been in. Many of the buildings were well more than twice the size of my house in Nuvema. As I walked, I couldn't help but wonder what the largest city I'd go through would be. Would I still be comparing it to small, little Nuvema town?

"Hey!" Bianca suddenly exclaimed. I looked at her, and she was pointing at a building off to our right. "It's the café, right? The… Gym Café? That's a strange name."

As we got closer, it could be read underneath the name that "A place with good tea and even better battles!"

Was this also the gym Cheren had said he would be going to? I began wrapping my brain around the thought that I'd be going into a gym. Was I even ready? I had beaten Bianca, but not by much…

But maybe Cheren would already be at the gym. I wanted to see Cheren again. Maybe, my friends and I wouldn't be as separated as I had thought we would be.

"C'mon! Let's go in!" I eagerly started running toward the gym, and Bianca laughed but quickly followed. A little more running in a day couldn't hurt, right? Well, it couldn't hurt more than it already did, at least.

Outside the Gym Café, a green haired guy not much older than us was standing next to the door. I momentarily thought of N, but it was a completely different shade of green. And N was cuter. I mentally rolled my eyes as I thought that—Cheren was still the cutest. Although, N seemed to have a more unique style…

As we approached, the guy gave us a welcoming smile and asking, "Hello, would you two be here for the café, or would you like to battle one of our gym leaders?"

Bianca and I looked at each other with a smile. "Umm," I started articulately. "I think for we'd just like some tea for now. We might come back tomorrow for the gym leaders."

As the guy walked us in, he continued smiling brightly. "Excellent! If you'd like to watch a battle while you're here, you came at the right time. One of our gym leaders has taken on a challenger. My name is Cilan, by the way. I'm also one of the gym leaders, but for now, I'll be your server."

He grabbed two menus and began to lead us to a table, but both Bianca and I were distracted by a sudden call of, "Purrloin, scratch!"

Both Bianca and I looked at each other with huge grins as we recognized the voice. Cheren really was here! I felt like I was suddenly shot with adrenaline. Bianca turned to Cilan and said, "Could we sit near the battle? Like, really close? One of our friends is battling, and we wanna watch!"

"Ah, that's your friend?" Cilan asked. "He's fighting Cress right now. That disappointed Chili quite a bit. Chili hasn't had a competitor in weeks, and he's been itching to fight."

As he was seating us at a table, I forced myself to look away from Cheren who was now in view and asked, "How do you guys choose who fights? Do you do paper-rock-scissors or something?"

He laughed. "Not quite, I'm afraid. We ask you what your starting pokémon is, and we use a pokémon that has the type advantage." Wasn't that a bit unfair? He continued, "Of course, if it's a pokémon we don't have a type advantage to, we just go based on which pokémon the opponent is not very effective against, or in the worst case, we simply try to make it so the opponent doesn't have a type advantage."

"Man," Bianca sighed. "I'll probably have to go back and train extra hard now. I didn't realize I'd have to be up against a pokémon with an advantage against mine."

Cilan grinned. "Well, uh, always be prepared for the worst! Still, if you'd like to train, I'd suggest going to the Dream Yard. It's a fun place. But now, you can take a moment to look at the menu and decide what you'd like. I'll be back shortly to take your order. Please enjoy watching your friend as well."

I definitely would enjoy watching Cheren. Already, my eyes were straying back to him. I should have been looking at the menu, but I'd probably just make a last minute choice. I wanted to watch Cheren. I had never seen him battle anyone except for me. When I was his opponent, I had to focus on my pokémon, so it was a new experience to see him like this.

To be honest, I couldn't remember a time when he looked as pumped and excited as he did now. As a friend, I couldn't help but feel happy for him, but at the same time, I couldn't help but notice how he looked more excited to be battling than he had looked in the past while hanging out with Bianca and me.

I was sure I was being silly, but I couldn't help but feel like he was beginning to move on. Our friendship was a thing of the past.

/-/-/-/-

"… and then their souls were stolen away into the night."

I shivered and crossed my arms over my chest. Telling ghost stories in a foggy place at night was undoubtedly creepy, yet I couldn't help that think that the way Bianca told the story, it could have almost been mistaken for romance.

"The premise for that story seems entirely unlikely," Cheren informed us stoically. "And aren't we supposed to be raising our pokémon out here? I haven't even seen any wild pokémon in this Dream Yard."

Bianca huffed. "I think it's a great story. You're just in a bad mood because you lost your first gym batt—"

Cheren abruptly held an arm out for us to stop, and he looked sharply to the right. "I can hear something."

Curious, Bianca and I turned and peered into the fog. Just as I was about to suggest that our marathon of ghost stories were beginning to get to him, a figure became visible. The ghost stories had definitely affected me, and I stepped in closer to Bianca and Cheren, away from the shadowy figure.

The person or ghost or whatever it was came closer, and I was relieved to see that it was a normal girl stepping towards us. She smiled at us as if it was completely normal to run into people in the middle of a foggy night.

"Hey," she greeted. She looked straight at me before continuing, "Hey! What was your first pokémon? I'm really curious!"

"Umm, I have a snivy," I answered a bit confusedly. I still couldn't figure out why this girl was talking to us.

"A snivy!" she exclaimed happily. "Really? In that case, here!" She pulled a pokéball out of her pocket and tossed it to me. "That's a panpour! Your snivy is weak to fire types, but if you have panpour, it can deal with the fire types. If you have the right pokémon types with you, you can take on anything."

I stared at the panpour's pokéball as the girl started asking Bianca and Cheren the same question. Was this girl seriously giving away her pokémon? As a gift? Did she not like her pokémon? Did her pokémon even want to leave? I couldn't help but wonder if the pokémon was given a choice.

After the girl gave Cheren a pansage and Bianca a pansear, she merely turned and began leaving. I was just going to let her go, but before she got even five feet away, Cheren said, "Wait. Why are you even giving us your pokémon?"

"Um…" The girl didn't even turn around, but she looked back at us over her shoulder. "I think being a pokémon trainer is a bit too much for me. You look like you guys can handle it better."

Before we could even say anything more, she started running away. Her figure soon became lost in the formless fog. Cheren shrugged and put the pokéball in his jacket pocket where I assumed his other two were. He informed us, "They'll definitely be a help against those three gym leaders. Even if the gym leaders have the advantage against our starters, we have the advantage with these. I'm not complaining."

/-/-/-/-

I was complaining.

"Crap, Panpour! Stop it! Water gun the lillipup!"

The next morning, it didn't take me long to figure out why that girl was so eager to give away her pokémon. They (Panpour, at least) were just a few notches short of being psycho.

The panpour shot water at the puppy, but it hardly even aimed. It let out a high pitched sound that was oddly similar to a laugh, and it proceeded to do cartwheels. Before cartwheels, it had been doing peculiar energetic dances. It had also been trying to jump over the lillipup rather than fight it. Not to mention, it had been bouncing on the ground using the tuft on its head for a spring.

The wild lillipup was less interested in playing games, and as soon as it caught up to the cartwheeling pokémon, it landed a vicious bite into its side. Panpour let out a cry and scratched the lillipup across the nose. It barked angrily. This entire scenario was almost reminding me of my battle against Bianca's lillipup using Purrloin…

"Panpour, water gun it again!"

Apparently upset from being viciously bit, it aimed perfectly at its opponent and shot water at it again. It had more of an effect this time, and the lillipup did look weakened.

It was a start. Panpour was looking like it'd be tough to train, but I'd try my hardest. It was the only water type I'd come across so far, so it was best to keep it as far as strategy goes. Even if it was beyond hyperactive and would probably rather play than fight.

After it finally managed to defeat the lillipup, I called Panpour closer, and it ran over to me happily and did somersaults around my feet.

I crouched down on the ground and found a potion in my bag. Since the panpour was still weak, it needed to be healed if I was going to stay out here training. I tried to sound happy (and not annoyed) as I said, "Here you go!" I sprayed the potion on it, hoping that enough would get on its side where the bite was to heal it.

Before I was done spraying, it jumped up and snatched the potion from me. It excitedly bounded a few feet away before I could react and began spraying the potion into its mouth. It seemed sad when the potion ran out, but it was more energetic than ever. It was bouncing up and down, and it jumped over to my bag and began searching through it. Within moments, it found another potion and began spraying it into its mouth as well.

"Hey!" I protested as I tried to grab it back. The little monkey skittered away until the potion was entirely gone, and it threw the empty bottle back at me. What was up with this pokémon?

I stood up and made sure it couldn't get at my bag, and as I watched it bounce around some more, a thought hit me. This panpour—was it addicted to potions? That's what it was acting like. Frenzied and addicted to potions—were Bianca's and Cheren's the same? That would definitely explain why that girl was trying to get rid of them.

I sighed as I recalled the hyper pokémon. This was definitely going to take some work. It didn't seem like it hated battling like Purrloin did, but it had a strong lack of focus. As it was, could it actually help me against the gym leaders?

I looked down at Panpour's pokéball that I still held in my hand. We had to continue getting stronger. If I could bring Panpour up to the rest of my pokémon (well, Lillipup or Snivy) then I could probably take on the gym leader. Hyperactive or not, this water monkey had a strong advantage to fire pokémon—Snivy's weakness. I need Panpour to be stronger.

I tossed its pokéball up and down a few times loosely before throwing it forward. The panpour looked around for a few minutes to see if there were any wild pokémon I wanted it to fight, but upon not seeing any, it turned to look at me. Without taking my eyes of its, I pulled a potion out of my bag. I could see the pokémon closely follow my movements.

"You want this?" I asked in a deadpan voice. "You're going to have to train for it—train hard."

I had never seen a pokémon with more vigor to fight. It went running off to find an opponent, and I had to run after it, barely able to keep up. Well, at least it was putting in effort now.

Was what I was doing wrong? Morally? I was bribing it with something it seemed to have an addiction towards… But there wasn't anything bad about potions. I couldn't imagine any bad side effects other than slowly becoming immune to the healing properties. How did something get addicted to potions anyway? Maybe it wasn't an addiction-_-_just a really obsessive love for the taste or something.

I sighed, but I had a renewed hope that I might be able to fight the gym leader sooner. If we trained for the rest of the day, would we be ready by tomorrow?

/-/-/-/-

The only way to find out was to try.

After spending that entire day and half the night training, I woke up groggily the next morning with the intent of getting that gym badge. What did it mean to have a gym badge, anyway? The only thing I knew was that it proved I was strong. I would have figured my pokémon could have proven that anyway, but after seeing Cheren so intent on fighting the gym battles… I felt compelled to, too.

Thus, it was on the third official day of my journey that I walked into the Gym Café for a battle. My pulse had sped up in anticipation, and I don't think I heard much of what Cilan said as he led me to where there would be enough space to start the battle. It was only when he stopped and his brothers accompanied him that I tuned into what was going on. Just in time, too—he was asking a question.

"So, um, what was your starter pokémon again?"

Without even fully being aware of what I was doing, I moved my hand down to rest on top of my bag where I kept my pokéballs as I answered, "Snivy."

I heard a small snicker, and I turned towards the one with red hair. "Snivy, eh? Grass type. It's been weeks since I've had an opponent." Chili's red eyes burned into mine as he pulled a pokéball out. He had a happy, almost sadistically excited, grin as he emphasized, "_Weeks_. I hope you're ready for this!"

He looked like he was charged with enough energy to take down an army. I thought of my new pokémon, Panpour. Chili wasn't the only one with energy. Was I ready for this battle? No. Not now, not ever. It was my third day of real pokémon battling, and I was sure I wasn't ready.

But my pokémon were.

/-/-/-/-

**A/N: That last scene is so short... But I'm glad to see you guys are still sticking through with my story! Every review makes me so happy! And a special note of happiness to Lollisalol because I told her I'd try to have this chapter up by Saturday (today) and so I made sure I did! I didn't want to feel guilty or undependable. T_T If there are any mistakes in this chapter, I'm going to blame it on a large portion of it being written past midnight of the past two nights. ^^;**

**And about the girl in the Dream Yard... I never understood why some people in the games give away their pokemon for no reason. So, I made a reason.**

**And also, for all my American readers, I'd like to take a moment to inform you that the current McDonald's kids' toys are pokemon from Black and White! I'm still so obsessed with the games, so I just about went crazy when I learned that, haha! I currently have Reshiram, Zekrom, and Oshawott. I don't care if I'm going into college-_-_I'm still getting Happy Meals.**

_Please continue to review! I appreciate it so much!_


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